The literal meaning of the word allegory is

197 Pages·2010·0.95 MB·English

Table of Contents
Table of Figures .................................................................................................................. 4
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. 8
Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 9
Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 10
Outline....................................................................................................................... 11
Biography .................................................................................................................. 13
Literature Review...................................................................................................... 17
Chapter One .................................................................................................................... 23
The Académie Royale ............................................................................................... 23
Artistic Styles ................................................................................................................ 26
The Rococo ............................................................................................................... 26
The Development of Neoclassicism ......................................................................... 29
Artistic Conditions ........................................................................................................ 34
The Decline of the Monarchy ................................................................................... 34
The Revolution.......................................................................................................... 35
The Republic ............................................................................................................. 37
Artistic Conditions during the Empire ...................................................................... 40
Artistic Conditions in the Restoration....................................................................... 43
Chapter Two .................................................................................................................... 49
Definition of Allegory................................................................................................... 49
The Origins of the Allegorical Tradition ...................................................................... 51
Eighteenth-Century Allegory ........................................................................................ 53
Rachel McConnell Pierre Paul Prud’hon and the Genius of Allegory 2
Allegory in Crisis .......................................................................................................... 55
Pre-Revolutionary Allegory .......................................................................................... 62
Allegory and the French Revolution ............................................................................. 63
Napoleonic Allegory ..................................................................................................... 66
Allegory in the Restoration ........................................................................................... 68
The Decline of Allegory ............................................................................................... 70
Chapter Three ................................................................................................................. 72
Prud’hon and the Rococo .............................................................................................. 72
Prud’hon and Neoclassicism ......................................................................................... 76
Prud’hon and Romanticism........................................................................................... 78
Prud’hon and the influence of Renaissance artists ....................................................... 84
Prud’hon and the Art World ......................................................................................... 88
Prud’hon and David ...................................................................................................... 89
Chapter Four ................................................................................................................... 95
Prud’hon and Allegory .................................................................................................. 95
Moral Allegories ....................................................................................................... 99
Cupid Bound To Reason and Cupid Laughs at the Tears He Causes (1793) ..... 100
The Union of Love and Friendship (1793) ......................................................... 105
Wisdom and Truth Descending to Earth (1799) ................................................. 112
Hôtel de Lannoy Salon (1798-1801) ................................................................... 115
Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime (1804) ...................................... 121
Love Seduces Innocence, Pleasure Entraps and Remorse Follows (1809) ........ 127
Political allegories ................................................................................................... 139
Rachel McConnell Pierre Paul Prud’hon and the Genius of Allegory 3
Liberty (1794) ..................................................................................................... 140
Equality (1794) ................................................................................................... 144
Law (1794) .......................................................................................................... 146
The French Constitution (1794).......................................................................... 148
Allegorical Portraits ................................................................................................ 152
The Apotheosis of Baron Joursanvault (1780) ................................................... 155
The Glorification of Burgundy (1786) ................................................................ 157
The Triumph of Bonaparte (1801) ...................................................................... 160
The King of Rome (1811) .................................................................................... 163
Cradle for the King of Rome .............................................................................. 166
Addressing Allegorical Criticism ............................................................................... 170
Prud’hon and Allegory: a Conclusion......................................................................... 173
Prud’hon and the Twenty-First Century ..................................................................... 174
Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 178
Rachel McConnell Pierre Paul Prud’hon and the Genius of Allegory 4
Table of Figures
Figure 1. Jean-Antoine Watteau, The Embarkation at Cythera, 1717, ............................. 47
Figure 2. Jean-Baptiste Greuze, The Broken Jug, 1785, ................................................... 47
Figure 3. Jacques-Louis David, The Oath of the Horatii, 1784, ....................................... 47
Figure 4. Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, Pygmalion and Galatea, 1819, ........ 47
Figure 5. Antoine-Jean Gros, Bacchus and Ariadne, c. 1821, .......................................... 47
Figure 6. Louis Hersent, Louis XVI Distributing Alms to the Poor, 1817, ....................... 47
Figure 7. Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, Portrait of Henri de la Rochejaquelein, 1817, ........... 48
Figure 8. Agesander, Athenodoros and Polydorus, Laocoön, c. 200 B.C., ...................... 71
Figure 9. Philippe-Auguste Hennequin, Philosophy Drawing aside the Clouds that Hid
the Truth; the Triumph of the French People, or the 10th of August, a relative Allegory to
this famous Day, 1799, 436 x 694 cm, oil on canvas, Musée des Beaux Arts, Rouen ..... 71
Figure 10. Philippe-Auguste Hennequin, The French Hercules, 1800, ............................ 71
Figure 11. Jean-Pierre Franque Allegory of the Condition of France Before the Return
From Egypt, 1810, 261cm x 326 cm, oil on canvas, Musée du Louvre ........................... 71
Figure 12. Antoine-Jean Baptiste Thomas, Oenone Refusing to Heal Paris, 1816, ......... 71
Figure 13. Pierre Paul Prud'hon, Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime, 1808, 92
Figure 14. Théodore Géricault, The Raft of the Medusa, 1818-19, .................................. 92
Figure 15. Leonardo da Vinci, Portrait of a Woman, c. 1495-99, .................................... 92
Figure 16. Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Raphael), The School of Athens, 1509-1510, .... 92
Figure 17. Pierre Paul Prud'hon, Le Séjour de l'Immortalité, c. 1808, ............................. 93
Figure 18. Pierre Paul Prud'hon, Psyche Carried Off By Zephyrs, 1808, ......................... 93
Figure 19. Antonio Allegri Correggio, Venus, Satyr and Cupid, 1524-1527, .................. 94
Rachel McConnell Pierre Paul Prud’hon and the Genius of Allegory 5
Figure 20. Pierre Paul Prud'hon, The Union of Love and Friendship, 1793, .................. 133
Figure 21. Pierre Paul Prud'hon, Wisdom and Truth Descending to Earth, 1799, ......... 133
Figure 22. Jacques-Louis Copia after Pierre Paul Prud'hon, Liberty, 1794, ................... 134
Figure 23. Jean-Baptiste Regnault, The Genius of France Between Liberty and Death,
1795,................................................................................................................................ 134
Figure 24. Jacques-Louis Copia after Pierre Paul Prud'hon, Cupid Laughs at the Tears He
Causes, 1793, 24.9 x 32.5 cm, etching, roulette and engraving, Bibliothèque Nationale de
France .............................................................................................................................. 134
Figure 25. Jacques-Louis Copia, after Pierre Paul Prud'hon, Cupid Bound to Reason,
1793, 25.2 x 32.5, etching, roulette and engraving, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 134
Figure 26. Jean Claude Naigeon, Hymen Burning the Flesh of Cupid, 1781-4, ............. 135
Figure 27. Peter Paul Rubens, Cupid Making His Bow, 1614, ....................................... 135
Figure 28. Capuan Venus, 117-138 A.D.,....................................................................... 135
Figure 29 Roman copy after Praxiteles, Apollo Sauroktonos, 2nd Century B.C., ........... 135
Figure 30. Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, Love Embracing Friendship, 1758, ........................... 135
Figure 31. Correggio, The School of Love, c. 1525, ....................................................... 135
Figure 32. Leonardo da Vinci, Virgin of the Rocks, 1483-86, ........................................ 135
Figure 33. Leonardo da Vinci, St. John the Baptist, c. 1513-1516, ................................ 136
Figure 34. Pierre Paul Prud'hon, Venus, Hymen and Cupid, c. 1793, ............................ 136
Figure 35. Nicolas Poussin Time Protects Truth from Envy and Discord, 1641, ........... 136
Figure 36. Pierre Paul Prud'hon, The Arts, 1798-1801, .................................................. 136
Figure 37. Pierre Paul Prud'hon, Wealth, 1798-1801, .................................................... 136
Figure 38. Pierre Paul Prud'hon, Pleasure, 1798-1801, .................................................. 137
Rachel McConnell Pierre Paul Prud’hon and the Genius of Allegory 6
Figure 39. Pierre Paul Prud'hon, Philosophy, 1798-1801, .............................................. 137
Figure 40. Pierre Paul Prud'hon, Noon, 1798-1801, ....................................................... 137
Figure 41. Pierre Paul Prud'hon, Afternoon, 1798-1801, ................................................ 137
Figure 42. Pierre Paul Prud'hon, Evening, 1798-1801, ................................................... 138
Figure 43. Villa of Publius Fannius Synistor, mid-first century B.C., ........................... 138
Figure 44. Bust of Caracalla, 212-215 A.D, ................................................................... 138
Figure 45. Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Raphael), Pope Leo I Repulsing Attila, Stanza
d’Eliodoro, 750 cm (base), fresco,The Vatican .............................................................. 138
Figure 46. Nicolas Poussin, Woman Taken Adultery, c. 1653, ....................................... 138
Figure 47. Pierre Paul Prud'hon, Love Seduces Innocence, Pleasure Entraps, and
Remorse Follows, c. 1809, 97.5 x 81.5 cm, oil on canvas, private collection ................ 138
Figure 48. Antoine Jean Gros, Allegorical Figure of the French Republic, 1795, ......... 152
Figure 49. Jacques-Louis Copia after Pierre Paul Prud'hon, Equality, 1794-98, ........... 152
Figure 50. Jacques-Louis Copia after Pierre Paul Prud'hon, Law, 1794-98, .................. 153
Figure 51. Jacques-Louis Copia after Pierre Paul Prud'hon, The French Constitution,
1794-98, .......................................................................................................................... 153
Figure 52. Pierre Paul Prud'hon The Apotheosis of Baron Joursanvault, 1780, ............. 175
Figure 53. Pierre Paul Prud'hon, The Glorification of Burgundy, 1786, ........................ 176
Figure 54. Pietro Da Cortona, The Triumph of Religion (also known as The Triumph of
Divine Providence), 1633-9, fresco, Grand Salon of the Palazzo Barberini, Rome ....... 176
Figure 55. Domenico Mondo, The Burgundy Arms, Supported by Virtues, Triumph over
Vices, c. 1787, 129 x 63 cm, oil on fabric, Musée du Louvre ........................................ 176
Rachel McConnell Pierre Paul Prud’hon and the Genius of Allegory 7
Figure 56. Pierre Paul Prud'hon, The Triumph of Bonaparte (also known as Peace), 1801,
......................................................................................................................................... 176
Figure 57. Detail from the Arch of Titus, c. 81 A.D., 200 cm (height), marble, Rome . 176
Figure 58. Pierre Paul Prud'hon, The King of Rome, 1811, ............................................ 176
Figure 59. Peter Paul Rubens, Romulus and Remus, 1615-1616, ................................... 177
Figure 60. Jean-Baptiste Isabey, The King of Rome in Mars’ Helmet, 1811, ................. 177
Figure 61. Pierre Paul Prud'hon, Henri-Victor Roguier, Jean-Baptiste Odiot, Pierre-
Philippe Thomire, Cradle for the King of Rome, 1811, 216 cm (height), gold, silver,
velvet silk and tulle, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna ................................................ 177
Figure 62. Pierre Paul Prud'hon, The Tiber, cradle for the King of Rome, c. 1811, ...... 177
Figure 63. Pierre Paul Prud'hon, Mercury and the Seine, Cradle for the King of Rome, c.
1811................................................................................................................................. 177
Rachel McConnell Pierre Paul Prud’hon and the Genius of Allegory 8
Acknowledgements

My thanks to the following people: my supervisors, Dr. Emilie Sitzia and Dr. Ian
Lochhead, Douglas Horrell for advising me on the illustrations, the UC Masters
Scholarship fund, the Ethel Rose Overton Scholarship fund, and the Musée des Beaux-
Arts of Dijon, who granted me permission to use a photograph of one of their works.
Last, but definitely not least, I express by gratitude to my parents and my sister – without
your support I could not have done this.
Rachel McConnell Pierre Paul Prud’hon and the Genius of Allegory 9
Abstract
Pierre Paul Prud’hon (1758-1823) lived and worked as an artist during the last years of
the French Monarchy, the Revolution, the Republic, the Empire and finally the
Restoration. He mostly worked with allegory, setting him apart from other artists at the
time, such as Jacques Louis David. While Prud’hon was a significant artist in his own
time, he is only just being rehabilitated today. In this thesis I trace Prud’hon’s artistic
career as an allegorical painter through the different governments, examining
thematically his different types of allegories, from the moral to the political. In particular,
the context of allegory is examined, including how Prud’hon approaches allegory and
criticism and interpretation of his use of allegory. This examination of Prud’hon
highlights what was so unusual about Prud’hon’s art – primarily his use, with reasonable
success, of allegory. This alone makes it clear that he should be held in higher regard by
today’s art historians.